A small British charity providing clean water in Africa and supported by The Times is to be the sole beneficiary of the next Live Earth event in the UK.
Pump Aid will receive proceeds from the Live Earth Run for Water, a sponsored 6km event taking place this April in 40 countries with hundreds of thousands of participants.
Live Earth, co-founded by Al Gore, the former US Vice-President, and the music producer Kevin Wall in 2007 to raise awareness of climate change with a series of concerts around the world, is this year focusing on improving access to clean water.
Mr Wall chose Pump Aid to benefit from the Run for Water because of the simplicity of its approach. “It’s amazing what they do with such basic recycled materials to bring water to whole communities,” Mr Wall told The Times on a visit to one of Pump Aid’s projects in Chadza, Malawi.
Readers of The Times raised more than £500,000 in the 2008 appeal for the charity, which works to bring access to safe water in Malawi, Liberia and Zimbabwe. The pumps, which can extract water from up to 50 metres deep, work on a rope and washer system. The washers, made out of melteddown and recast plastic bags, are tied to the rope, which is fashioned from the leaves of a tough local plant. As the rope is pulled up plastic piping from the bottom of a well, a column of filtered water is drawn up with it at a rate of one litre a second.
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The community are taught to make replacement parts for the pumps, known as elephant pumps for their strength, shape and reliability, and are involved in its building.
Mr Wall, a millionaire producer of live events including the forthcoming opening of the 2010 World Cup, said: “Water is a pressing issue globally. You can’t go six days without drinking water and it’s probably the by-products [of dirty water] that kill more people than anything else. It’s something immediate, something that we can provide solutions for now. It’s the key to so many things.”
It is estimated that one billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water and are under threat from waterborne diseases. Scientists predict that over the next 20 years the world’s population will rise by up to a third and demand for fresh water will increase by 30 per cent.
The poorest areas are likely to suffer most in the battle for water which is likely to break out in about 250 river basins which shared by more than one country. Live Earth aims to raise enough money in the UK through the sponsored 6km runs for 3.5 million people in sub-Sarahan Africa to have a fresh water supply for life.
The 6km distance for the runs in London and Manchester on April 18 represent the average distance children and women in Africa walk for water every day.
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Ian Thorpe, chief executive of Pump Aid, said he was delighted that the charity had been chosen. “There are 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa without access to clean water. Two thirds could benefit from our approach and we can share what we have learnt with other organisations.”
Installing a pump costs £500 and can provide water for a village of 70 households.
“If we can combine clean water with decent sanitation the impact on health is huge and measurable — the vast majority of days lost to illness are water borne diseases,” Mr Thorpe said.
To register to take part in Run for Water, log on to liveearth.org/en/run